Mom was the first in our family to see the light. She was the first to switch to a Mac computer six years ago, and the first to switch to iPhone three years ago… now 3/6 of us use Macs, and 4/6 of us have iPhones (does Chris have one Down Under? Not sure…) and that “6” is counting Brandon, so really maybe you should make the count out of 5 since Branny’s only nine years old. =)

For Christmas, Chris and I surprised her with a new iPhone. I sneakily purchased the phone and activated the account on the sly, so she had no idea until she opened the box. And I tried desperately to make a call to the phone so that it would ring right while she started unwrapping it…but thanks to Waxhaw cell phone service (or lack thereof) it didn’t start ringing until about a minute after she opened it. Ah well, nice try. It was still a fun surprise.

One thing you might not know about my mom, which has nothing to do with Macs, is how hard she works. She works the night shift in the ER, so that she can at least see Brandon during the week… on work days she wakes up in time to see Branny when he gets off the school bus, helps him with his homework, makes him dinner, and then drives away to work while Dad puts him to bed. She started picking up full-time hours and many shifts of overtime over the course of the past couple of years. She keeps our family afloat, and does it cheerfully. She does so much for us… and not much for herself. And so Chris, Jess, and I thought it’d be a fitting gift to surprise her with an Apple product…. again. =)